▲ Nam Dong-heon moves with his medal.
South Korean national equestrian athlete Nam Dong-heon (37) spectacularly revived the pride of South Korean equestrian sports by waving the Taegeukgi at the highest spot of the Asian Games podium.
Nam competed with his horse Leonidas in the individual dressage final of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Baji Park in Tokyo today (September 27), claiming the top spot with a final score of 75.190 points.
With Nam's victory, South Korean equestrian sports achieved the feat of reclaiming the Asian Games individual dressage title 12 years after the 2014 Incheon Games.
This gold medal marks Nam's second medal of the current games.
Earlier, on September 25 at the same venue, he teamed up with Kim Si-woo, Lee Myung-seok, and Do Hyun-woo in the team dressage final, combining for a total score of 205.265 points to win the silver medal.
At that time, he recorded 70.559 points, the highest among all team competitors, early on foreshadowing his golden performance.
Equestrian dressage, often called "ballet on horseback," is an event where a rider gives instructions to a horse inside an arena to perform various movements such as walking and running along a prescribed path.
The judging panel comprehensively evaluates the horse's pace and rhythm, the rapport between the rider and the horse, and the accuracy and artistry of the movements, determining rankings based on the percentage score achieved relative to a perfect score.
As such, delicate communication between rider and horse is essential.
South Korean equestrian sports previously reigned as an absolute powerhouse in Asian Games dressage.
Starting with Suh Jung-gyun at the 1998 Bangkok Games, it swept the gold medals for five consecutive times up to the 2002 Busan, 2006 Doha, 2010 Guangzhou, and 2014 Incheon Games.
However, after the gold rush was cut off at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, the team suffered the humiliation of failing to win any medals for the first time since dressage was introduced as an official event at the 1986 Seoul Games at the immediately preceding 2022 Hangzhou Games, severely denting its pride.
For Nam personally, the meaning of this gold medal is extraordinary.
During the Hangzhou Games, he suffered agonizing bad luck when he had to give up his qualification right before his eyes due to the sudden injury of his longtime partner horse, First Edition.
Overcoming the pain, Nam finally stood at the top of the podium alongside Leonidas, a 10-year-old horse he has spent the past three years carefully bonding with for this competition.
Carrying the momentum of his fierce performance in the team event straight into the individual final, Nam clinched a thrilling gold medal after a nail-biting close contest.
The score difference with China's Yu Zai (75.050 points), who took the silver medal, was a mere 0.140 points.
The bronze medal also went to China's Lao Zai, who scored 74.935 points.
Having shed sweat through bitter determination, Nam swept both the team silver and individual gold medals at this competition, completely quenching South Korean equestrian's 12-year thirst for victory.
(Photo provided by the Korea Equestrian Federation, Yonhap News)
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